mr jailer...
(For this blog entry, I recommend the song Jailer, by Asa. Lyrics here.)
At our CPT-O meeting on Saturday, after various project presentations (Chris and me on Elsipogtog/New Brunswick; Bob on Palestine,* and Peter on the Royal Proclamation trip to London, UK,**), we heard from Mohamed Mahjoub, an Egyptian man who's been living in Canada as a prisoner, first inside a detention center and later under house arrest, since 2000, without trial or charges. He told us his story. He said he came to Canada in 1995 as a refugee, that he'd already been held and tortured by former Egyptian president Mubarak's regime, and that the Canadian security forces arrested him after a background check -- done so he could get his residency, which he'd applied for -- revealed Mubarak's regime wanted him back. He was held, largely in solitary confinement, until 2007, and he's been on house arrest ever since.
This is a man who has been branded a terrorist by the Canadian government (and the press), and what I really want is for you to know his name. But he is not an uncontroversial figure, so what I'll do is link to several different ends of the Internet, and let you see how he's been painted. Me, I found him erudite, gracious, and deeply cynical of the Canadian government.
Mohamed Mahjoub's wikipedia page
A recent article from the CBC, about a judge's ruling to extend Mr Mahjoub's restrictions, despite strong evidence that he is not a terrorist.
An earlier article from the Toronto Star, which casts Mr Mahjoub in a somewhat different light
And, Support Mahjoub, a grassroots solidarity network.
You know that illusion we have about things not being as bad in North America as they are in other parts of the world? In a lot of ways, this is true. But please remember, our governments are some of the most powerful in the whole damn world. If they decide they want to disappear someone, or make someone's life hell, there isn't a whole lot anyone is gonna do about it. Especially if that person is marginalized already: a person of color, and/or "illegal," and/or Muslim.
Pretty sobering.
*Hearing about Hebron/al-Khalil is never easy; I am struck again and again by how much energy my colleagues give to their work there. In the course of his story, Bob mentioned how, each time when a new CPTer came to join the team, young men were protesting in the streets of Hebron because the Israeli army had killed another Palestinian, and each new team member had to walk the long way to the office because of tear gas bubbling up the hill. A coincidence, and the way Bob told the story, we chuckled -- "So-and-so was arriving, and I went to pick them up, and again, tear gas!" -- but really, really, what amounts for "normal" in Hebron is occupation and apartheid through another lens.
**Learn more about the delegation Peter accompanied by watching this fantastic mini-documentary (7 mins) here: Nation to Nation: Honoring the Royal Proclamation of 1763
At our CPT-O meeting on Saturday, after various project presentations (Chris and me on Elsipogtog/New Brunswick; Bob on Palestine,* and Peter on the Royal Proclamation trip to London, UK,**), we heard from Mohamed Mahjoub, an Egyptian man who's been living in Canada as a prisoner, first inside a detention center and later under house arrest, since 2000, without trial or charges. He told us his story. He said he came to Canada in 1995 as a refugee, that he'd already been held and tortured by former Egyptian president Mubarak's regime, and that the Canadian security forces arrested him after a background check -- done so he could get his residency, which he'd applied for -- revealed Mubarak's regime wanted him back. He was held, largely in solitary confinement, until 2007, and he's been on house arrest ever since.
This is a man who has been branded a terrorist by the Canadian government (and the press), and what I really want is for you to know his name. But he is not an uncontroversial figure, so what I'll do is link to several different ends of the Internet, and let you see how he's been painted. Me, I found him erudite, gracious, and deeply cynical of the Canadian government.
Mohamed Mahjoub's wikipedia page
A recent article from the CBC, about a judge's ruling to extend Mr Mahjoub's restrictions, despite strong evidence that he is not a terrorist.
An earlier article from the Toronto Star, which casts Mr Mahjoub in a somewhat different light
And, Support Mahjoub, a grassroots solidarity network.
You know that illusion we have about things not being as bad in North America as they are in other parts of the world? In a lot of ways, this is true. But please remember, our governments are some of the most powerful in the whole damn world. If they decide they want to disappear someone, or make someone's life hell, there isn't a whole lot anyone is gonna do about it. Especially if that person is marginalized already: a person of color, and/or "illegal," and/or Muslim.
Pretty sobering.
*Hearing about Hebron/al-Khalil is never easy; I am struck again and again by how much energy my colleagues give to their work there. In the course of his story, Bob mentioned how, each time when a new CPTer came to join the team, young men were protesting in the streets of Hebron because the Israeli army had killed another Palestinian, and each new team member had to walk the long way to the office because of tear gas bubbling up the hill. A coincidence, and the way Bob told the story, we chuckled -- "So-and-so was arriving, and I went to pick them up, and again, tear gas!" -- but really, really, what amounts for "normal" in Hebron is occupation and apartheid through another lens.
**Learn more about the delegation Peter accompanied by watching this fantastic mini-documentary (7 mins) here: Nation to Nation: Honoring the Royal Proclamation of 1763